Bonz Blogz: June 2016

Farm Stand 6/4

Yesterday morning, I got up early so I could get all my errands done and get back home to lounge around in my jammies and spend time with my chickens.

I first stopped off at my favorite farm stand. I picked up a lot of goodies. :)

Here's everything I got.

watermelon

new Basil plant

3 peppers

green beans

broccoli

I get a 10% discount because I'm a CSA member with this farmer. My total for all of this was $13.85.

The watermelon is sooooo good. I'm glad I picked it up.

I took out my old basil plant from my kitchen garden and planted it in the ground near the greenhouse. I put my new basil plant in the kitchen garden. How cute? :)

After the memorial service for Bill (Aunt Karen's husband) I dropped off Nate back at work. I was taking my mom back to my house so she could get her car. The Farmers Market at the hospital was happening so my mother asked to stop. So we went.

We walked around. There wasn't many vendors but there was plenty to see and buy.

Here's some veggies and fruits....

I saw this little herb garden. I loved it. The container is adorable. I'm not sure how much these were. I didn't see any signs with a price. :(

We stopped at a lemonade vendor and and my mom treated me to a nice refreshing lemonade. We both got strawberry lemonade. It was sooooo good, cold and perfect for the hot day.

My mother picked up some lettuce and fresh tomatoes. She had plans to make BLT's for dinner. MMMMM! I saw a chives plant I wanted from one farmer. I had no cash so my mom got it for me with her tomatoes purchase.

After I got home, my mom went home and K texted me. She was almost to my town from the memorial service we attended. I told her to stop by my house so she could see the chickens. :)

Then we went to target. We both bought way too much stuff at target. haha What else is new? Target does that to you. :)

One thing, I bought myself was this cute little herb garden pot. K said she has this exact pots and tray for her kitchen window herb garden. The little pots snap out to clean the tray.

When I got home I potted my new chives, old chives and my old basil plants.

New Car

My husband and I had talked about getting a new vehicle early next year. My husband was going to trade in his Dodge Charger for a Challenger. The Charger was starting to have a few problems so we figured it was best to go ahead and trade it in now. We decided the Friday before Memorial Day we'd drive out to the dealership I found that had the exact Challenger my husband was looking for. We signed our lives away. haha We are really happy with the new car.

Saying goodbye to the old car....

Saying hello to the new car....

It's such a smart car. So much technology.

Strawberry Picking 2016

Last weekend, I made it a point to get to a local farm and pick strawberries. There is nothing better than freshly picked strawberries. I went to Millers Farms out in Locust Grove. When I was a little girl, my family and I always picked berries at Belvedere Plantation but they haven’t done berries in a long time. I’m glad there’s other farms here in our area where we can pick your own.

I wore some boots because I knew it would be a muddy mess and it sure was. And yes, my boots have chickens on them. Why wouldn’t they? haha

So many delicious red berries….I might have ate this one right after I picked it. You have to taste test right?

I filled up an entire box with fresh berries. I was kind and dropped some off over at my parents house for them to enjoy.

Backyard Chickens Update #11- CHICKS ARE HOME

My friend and I put all the chicks in the playpen. We grabbed each one and let the Roos go and then I decided which girls I wanted.

I brought a big box with me. Melissa poked a bunch of holes at the top and we put the chicks in the box. Then I brought them home. They only peeped for about 10 minutes and then they were quiet all the way home.

As soon as I got home, my husband came out and grabbed the box and we put them in the coop. They started running around and checking things out.

My chickens are home!! I picked up three last weekend. I’m allowed to have five total. I will get two more later. Most of the ten chicks that hatched turned out to be Roos instead of Hens.

Hopefully, I picked right and all three are hens. haha

I put the chicks in the coop so they’d get used to their new home. Here’s the smallest one peeking in the top area to explore.

The little one I hope is a hen. haha It’s hard to tell at this age. The little one is the last one that hatched during the week all the others hatched. I think Molly is a cute name for her. What do you think? The grey one I think I should name Buttercup because I have a cute picture of her standing next to a bunch of buttercup flowers when she was really little.

This one I don’t know what to name her. I think Grace is a good name for her. She's graceful. My husband is holding her here and she ate some food from his hand.

They all like roosting together on the roosting bars.

Fluffy butt….

CSA Box- Week 5

We are loving our CSA box. Farm fresh veggies and fruits. What's not to love? I make sure to use up everything so nothing goes to waste. Anything we don't use within 7 days then I freeze it so it doesn't spoil and then I can use later.

Here's everything that was in the box for week 5:

Swiss Chard

Sugar Snap Peas

Greenhouse grown Tomatoes

Mixed Zucchini

Onions

Kohlrabi

Blueberries

Onions....love fresh onions.

Peas....

The blueberries weren't picked in time so I got a note to come back and pick up my blueberries.

I picked them up on my way into work one morning. So delicious.

Amish Country PA with my Bestie

My BFF and I went to Amish Country, Pennsylvania this past weekend. We’d been planning this trip for years and have never been able to go so we decided this year was it. We had a ton of fun. We drove around Lancaster, Bird-in-hand, Intercourse, Strasburg, Nickel Mines, and more. We went to Amish farms/shops, markets, tons of shops and lots of gardening shops too.

One place we stopped off was an Amish homestead where they sold homemade Root Beer. I’d been here before when my husband ran in the Amish half marathon a few years ago. I knew this place was awesome.

Cold refreshing root beer……mmmmmm.

We also went to several Amish shops. This one here is a quilt shop. So many beautiful quilts. My BFF ended up buying 2 different large wall hangings from 2 different Amish shops.

I bought a small Amish handmade wall hanging from one Old Order shop. The Amish man was very nice.

One place we ate dinner at was Hershey Farm Restaurant.

I got the Fried Chicken dinner. It was so good. For dessert I got a Chocolate Chip Whoopie pie and it was AMAZING!!!!! No picture of that because well it was so good and I gobbled it up so fast.

At one quilt shop I picked up this Chicken/Rooster eye glass holder. It was so cute and I had to have it. I might use it for a pen/highlighter holder for my purse.

We drove around looking for covered bridges. We found maybe 5? Of course, most of them you aren’t allowed to travel on anymore because they are falling apart. They are still cool to see and they reminded us of the movie Beetlejuice.

One day, for lunch we wanted a delicious Amish homemade meal and we went to Katie’s Kitchen that was recommended to us by an Amish lady. Katie’s Kitchen, was an authentic Amish restaurant. We both got the roast beef and noodles. This was just a half plate. Soooooo good.

We had a ton of fun and we are already thinking of where the next place is that we are going to go to.

Some more pictures....

We drove around just trying to find places. We found the new Nickel Mines Amish school. We also stumbled upon an Amish yard sale.

This is a card I got. It was hand painted by an Amish mennonnite.

Here's a burger and fries that I got from Miller's. Soooo yummy.

When Nate and I were in Lancaster, PA we went to September Farms. We discovered Cheese tarts so since K was taking me to all the places she knew about this was one place I wanted to take her. It's been years since I was here and it was a one room shop. Now it's HUGE and I love it. I'm glad to see it so successful.

Here's 2 cheese tarts I bought to bring home. Cherry and salted caramel.

K bought some stuff for her mom and dad here.

I had a cone on the deck while we took a break.

We had free breakfast every morning at our hotel. (Comfort inn) They had a waffle maker that had an imprint of a buggy. So cool.

At Hershey Farms I bought a chocolate chip cookie whoopie and OMG. This was the best ever!!!! Good thing I don't live there because this would be all I would eat. haha